The Metal / Rock Music Discussion Thread

Recommended Posts

After trying to discuss various things in The Metal / Rock Music Fans thread only to be met with a barrage of videos, I figured I'd make a new thread dedicated to the discussion of rock and metal music rather than people just posting youtube videos hoping that somebody will watch it, quote them, and say they like it.

Share this post

Link to post

During my childhood I listened mainly to classic radio rock. My dad is into that stuff and I heard it constantly growing up. But at the age of 13 I bought my very first CD which was Black Sabbath's "Paranoid." I also bought my first vinyl records which were "Master Of Reality" and the self-titled Black Sabbath debut. That forever changed my taste in music.

It was a heaviness and evil I'd never heard before. All the musical neurons in my brain clicked together instantly. Everything from the snide vocals of Ozzy Osbourne to the evil bluesy Doom Metal bending guitar riffs of Tony Iommi. The cool and creepy cover art. It was absolute magic, and right around Halloween as well. The cool, crisp air. Oh man... memories. I would go out in the middle of the night and play the early Sabbath albums on my Walkman CD player while wandering through streets and cemeteries.

I have a soft spot for the entire Doom Metal scene and have even written about it. These days I'm also into Death, Black and Thrash Metal. Although nothing in the world can replace the feelings I got the first time I heard bands like Black Sabbath, Pentagram, Candlemass, Trouble and Hour Of 13. Pure ecstasy.

Link to post

Share this post

Link to post

I'm with you, RUSH. I also grew up on classic rock like Deep Purple and Peter Frampton.

Then I found Pantera on my own, and my musical life changed. Shortly after I discovered Slipknot, the first song being New Abortion played at Ozzfest 2001. To this day that is my favorite live performance of any song ever.

But my true metal love is Doom Metal. Tony Iommi being at the forefront of that. I remember the moment I realized that Mr. Iommi was the evilest sounding guitarist in existence...when I first heard After All (The Dead). The opening riff gave me chills the first time I heard it, and the chorus riff (♪There's insufficient eveidence of what just might come after♪) was fucking godlike. His tone is the epitome of doom metal...turn the chorus effect up a twinge and crank the reverb. Boom, you're now evil as fuck.

But during the last couple of decades, there has been a significant decline in creativity. Far too many acts associate pushing the genre forward with tuning ever lower, playing ever faster, cramming as much information in every song as possible, and continually finding ways to water down the sound for radio/MTV/teenybopper audiences. Either that, or they want to be carbon copies of bands from 30 or 40 years ago, except not nearly as memorable or fun. The ones that try to push in the direction of the avant garde just end up being metal + [insert unexpected genre here], which seems rather forced to me.

I find there is very little innovation in today's metal, and that is probably due to the fact that the genre is, by its very nature, self-restricting. It's a concentrated form of hard rock which itself is a concentrated form of rock-and-roll. So there's very little room to explore ideas outside of the main template, because then it's deemed as something other than metal. During the first 20 years of its evolution, there existed a wide variety of sounds, with some bands sounding closer to psychedelic rock, funk, punk rock, even pop/glam rock ala Cheap Trick. Then all the really heavy shit came along--thrash, speed, death, black, grind, doom--which added even more diversity. Seems not too long after that, far too many folks ran out of ideas, much like with hardcore and pop punk. It's a shame, really.

But during the last couple of decades, there has been a significant decline in creativity. Far too many acts associate pushing the genre forward with tuning ever lower, playing ever faster, cramming as much information in every song as possible, and continually finding ways to water down the sound for radio/MTV/teenybopper audiences. Either that, or they want to be carbon copies of bands from 30 or 40 years ago, except not nearly as memorable or fun. The ones that try to push in the direction of the avant garde just end up being metal + [insert unexpected genre here], which seems rather forced to me.

I find there is very little innovation in today's metal, and that is probably due to the fact that the genre is, by its very nature, self-restricting. It's a concentrated form of hard rock which itself is a concentrated form of rock-and-roll. So there's very little room to explore ideas outside of the main template, because then it's deemed as something other than metal. During the first 20 years of its evolution, there existed a wide variety of sounds, with some bands sounding closer to psychedelic rock, funk, punk rock, even pop/glam rock ala Cheap Trick. Then all the really heavy shit came along--thrash, speed, death, black, grind, doom--which added even more diversity. Seems not too long after that, far too many folks ran out of ideas, much like with hardcore and pop punk. It's a shame, really.

I agree with this a lot, actually. It's hard to find a good modern metal band anymore. The metal scene has become a pissing contest to see who can scream the loudest, play the fastest or most "technical", who's playing in Dropped Whatthefuckever tuning, who has the fastest triggered drums...it's horse shit. There's no emotion anymore. No soul. Just some asshole yelling into a microphone.

I'm sorry, but when you hear Ronnie James Dio yell "I'm buried aliiiiiiive!", You fucking believed it. There was a strong sense of sincerity in his voice...that's what metal is missing nowadays.

Share this post

Link to post

I think part of the problem is that everything (not just metal) is over-fucking-produced. But in metal especially, this kills the organic sound of older recordings. The guitars are so cleaned up and processed that it almost sounds like a really good synth. Drums are so triggered they sound like they're programmed. And vocalists are so crisp and clear that they lack ferocity or a sense of space. It's very sterile and unappealing!

Share this post

Link to post

Well, you can't expect bands to keep releasing classics forever. Since the end of the nineties extreme metal was pretty much drowned in thrash bands turning groove or nu metal, loathsome melodic and ultra technical/brutal death and atrocious overproduced black metal. It's just the natural saturation of the genre.
Still, if you search well enough there's always some old bands releasing great albums and new ones with inventive styles doing awesome music.

Share this post

Link to post

There's just not enough base ideas in metal to keep the genre going. This sort of thing happens with literally every movement. You have to be inventive as fuck now to be interesting. To me practically every new metal song I hear makes me go, "This sounds almost exactly like what was coming out 20/30/40 years ago."

Share this post

Link to post

I think part of the problem is that everything (not just metal) is over-fucking-produced. But in metal especially, this kills the organic sound of older recordings. The guitars are so cleaned up and processed that it almost sounds like a really good synth. Drums are so triggered they sound like they're programmed. And vocalists are so crisp and clear that they lack ferocity or a sense of space. It's very sterile and unappealing!

I definitely agree with this. When you listen to an album like Autopsy - "Mental Funeral" or Pentagram - "Relentless" you immediately notice the rough production. But it works SO much better that way! Gives everything a dirty, dark, gritty sound. It wouldn't be the same if the band recorded those same songs in a professional studio. Not even close. The rough analog gear and early digital processing makes the atmosphere much more hellish and effective.

PureSlime said:

Old school death metal is my one true musical love.

Same here. Death Metal from 1985-1995 is some of the absolute best. Raw sound, lots of style and passion. The creative roots of the genre.

That's not to say there isn't still some good metal being produced. Because there definitely is, but it's getting harder and harder to find.

Share this post

Link to post

I'm fan of rock music and metal since I was 9 years old kid. My firsts albums was Metallica "Kill Em' All" and "...And Justice For All". I love all sorts of this music, my music taste changing with periods of my life, good riffs, hard & catchy sound are things I always loved - death metal, thrash metal, '80 hard/glam, hardcore, retro '70 hard rock/doom e t.c. From Metallica to Morbid Angel, from Morbid Angel to Pantera, from Pantera to Sick Of It All, from Sick Of It All to Motley Crue, from Motley Crue to Kyuss e t.c.

Share this post

Link to post

On the topic of newer bands, especially those who try to mimic old classic bands and their sound (trying to get that old sound etc), there are so many of those around these days its not even funny. I guess its a naturan response to all those MODERN newer bands thats taken the genre (death, black, whatever) "too far" and into new grounds.

I dont mind though, as Goatlord said, there simply arent enough base ideas in metal to keep the genre interesting/fresh anymore. That being said, I think its a good idea to lisyen to "the old masters" and sort of "mimic" their ways, but with a twist, or at least make it fucking good.

My band is trying to do this, as we figured "fuck there is no way we can be original anyway, so lets try to do the old thing in a cool way".

Share this post

Link to post

But during the last couple of decades, there has been a significant decline in creativity.

Complete opposite for me. There's been so much new talent over the last 6 years or so doing interesting and creative things. I mostly just stick to the progressive sphere, which AFAIK is what the whole djent movement initially spawned out of. But today it seems to cover a much wider spectrum of metal, and if the only thing you take from it is just more downtuning I can see how it's not terribly captivating. Prog-derived djent acts like Chimp Spanner, Tesseract, Intervals, and David Maxim Micic all sound wildly different from eachother though with different sounds and songwriting styles.

Share this post

Link to post

I like alot of old metal like Ozzy and some newer metal such as Lamb of god and black Dhalia Murder, But honestly I like Nu metal the most, Slipknots newest album was very very Good imo. Is Deftones metal? Love them.

Share this post

Link to post

I find there is very little innovation in today's metal, and that is probably due to the fact that the genre is, by its very nature, self-restricting. It's a concentrated form of hard rock which itself is a concentrated form of rock-and-roll. So there's very little room to explore ideas outside of the main template, because then it's deemed as something other than metal. During the first 20 years of its evolution, there existed a wide variety of sounds, with some bands sounding closer to psychedelic rock, funk, punk rock, even pop/glam rock ala Cheap Trick. Then all the really heavy shit came along--thrash, speed, death, black, grind, doom--which added even more diversity. Seems not too long after that, far too many folks ran out of ideas, much like with hardcore and pop punk. It's a shame, really.

That's a damn good point you make. I think you're forgetting about progressive metal, though. Admittedly, most modern progressive metal bands sound pretty similar to one another, but on the flipside, there are bands like Haken and Leprous that aren't afraid to sound different and creative. That's not to say I don't enjoy, say Periphery and Tesseract, though, even if they sound less innovative.

Share this post

Link to post

I like a number of different metals and their offshoots. I mean, I'll listen to anything along the lines of MegaDeth, Iron maiden, Quiet Riot, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Avenged Sevenfold, Tool, Breaking Benjamin, Trapt, Escape the Fate, Blind Guardian, Hammerfall, Iced Earth, Falconer, to name a few from different styles. I've found some neat stuff on bandcamp too, like Starborn, Savage Wizdom, Noble Beast, Hoth, some others.

Only things I don't really care for are some of the harder Black/Death Metal types, save for some instrumentals (The vocals can go), and the hideously terrible Deathcore thing, which is basically taking away the technical instrumentation, adding hardcore like breakdowns (Which I don't mind, in other genres), and keeping the god awful vocals. It's stripped down, neutered, and just screams boredom. I'm not sure how they bring themselves to even play that.

I listen to a huge variety of music... Classical, neo-folk/militant, ambient, Townes Van Zandt etc; but in terms of metal I first heard when my father put on Sepultura - Morbid Visions record in his living room, followed by Black Sabbath. Found Sacramentary Abolishment who turned into Axis of Advance, Conqueror, Order From Chaos, Angelcorpse... only black metal band I listened to (apart from Burzum) was Hate Forest and Bathory. Beherit I found boring. There are little-to-no truly ferocious bands around today, everything's become a derivative version of something else. There are exceptions... no point in mentioning them though after reading the above posts, they're better left hidden.

Share this post

Link to post

I listen to a huge variety of music... Classical, neo-folk/militant, ambient, Townes Van Zandt etc; but in terms of metal I first heard when my father put on Sepultura - Morbid Visions record in his living room, followed by Black Sabbath. Found Sacramentary Abolishment who turned into Axis of Advance, Conqueror, Order From Chaos, Angelcorpse... only black metal band I listened to (apart from Burzum) was Hate Forest and Bathory. Beherit I found boring. There are little-to-no truly ferocious bands around today, everything's become a derivative version of something else. There are exceptions... no point in mentioning them though after reading the above posts, they're better left hidden.

The best ambient black metal I've heard is Xasthur. Particularly Telepathic With The Deceased.